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INDIA ALLOWING IMPORT OF TOXIC WASTES: GREENPEACE

Deutsche Presse-Agentur

NEW DELHI, India, 14 July 1999 -- The international environmental watchdog Greenpeace Wednesday accused the Indian government of allowing the import of toxic wastes, thereby disobeying the orders of the country's supreme court. In a statement, Greenpeace said a recent government order allowing the free import of toxic zinc ash bypassed a process set up by the court empowering a committee to look into all aspects of the toxic waste trade. The statement said the supreme court order followed Greenpeace's exposure of the sale of toxic zinc ash by Germany to an Indian company whose conditions of processing and disposal were found wanting.

The ministry of environment is clearly acting as an enemy to the environment and a friend of dirty business," said Nityanand Jayaraman, who heads the organisation's toxic campaign in India.

"The pressure tactics of the waste trade mafia seem to have worked," Jayaraman added.

The statement said that environmentally sound hazardous waste reprocessing was a myth. "If it were possible, there is no reason why western countries would be eager to part with their toxic waste."

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